We poked fun at Qantas earlier this month for banning beer on their flights, so it's only fair we pass along this story about their in-flight drink leadership in the wine department. The Australian national airline leads the industry in serving fine vino to their first class and business class passengers, impressing even the palates of professional wine tasters. And taking the #1 slot isn't exactly easy, since the airline industry as a whole is stacked with corporations serving quality wines not just to elite customers but even in coach.

None of this will be news to Jaunted readers, who know that LAN Airlines sought out South America's solitary master wine sommelier to pick out their wine list. But the degree to which airlines are willing to go is still impressive, especially in an age of across-the-board cost cutting. Keep in mind that they're not getting directly reimbursed for any wine served in non-coach cabins, and now read this description of how far they're going to maintain customer loyalty:]]> Omri 2009-11-23T15:10:37-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/23/04918/206

British Airways CEO Willie Walsh is going around telling people (like Financial Times journalists) that he thinks a merger with Aussie airline Qantas could still happen. They talked about it last year but dismissed it as a bad idea, but now British Airways is considering nicer ways to ask.

Basically, Qantas is a successful airline on its own, even though their old CEO thought merging a good idea. So British Airways is now saying they could merge in the same way as they did with Spanish airline Iberia, which would still give Qantas a fair bit of autonomy.]]> amandak 2009-11-23T10:39:33-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/18/45710/552

We have a pretty decent respect for Aussie airline Qantas, with its better-than-average safety record and generally trouble-free flights (of course, we're not impressed by the recent beer ban on some flights, but it probably was in the name of safety, so who are we to complain). And now we can feel a little better about last year's mid-air drama over Western Australia, because investigators are blaming cosmic rays.

You might vaguely remember that in October last year, a Qantas flight from Singapore made an emergency landing after some rollercoaster action: it suddenly plunged 650 feet, got back up again then fell 400 feet. This led to some serious passenger injuries (no deaths, though) and a whole lot of serious questions. At the time, a lot of people were blaming passengers using laptops and other electronic devices. ]]> amandak 2009-11-18T17:09:39-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/13/102050/64

With the rise of LCC (low cost carrier) airlines and their love affair with new technology, it seems like the airport check-in process is becoming the least time-consuming and easiest portion of catching a flight. There's the touchscreen kiosks, dedicated bag drop counters, and even the ability to check-in and print your boarding pass online.

In Australia however, Qantas is still the gold standard, and luckily they're just as into updating the check-in process as we are. Focusing on cutting check-in time for their domestic passengers in half, Qantas is rehauling their system with the "next generation of check-in."

What that means for you Qantas flyers out there. ]]> JetSetCD 2009-11-13T10:33:23-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/9/03121/7132

The flying kangaroo, AKA Qantas, has got problems. As if banning beer on some flights wasn't bad enough, the planes and the pilots have been misbehaving too.

Last week, there was the case of the pilots who forgot to put the landing gear down on their way into Sydney, forcing the pilots to abort the landing and go again later. Those pilots have now been suspended although the lack of landing gear is being put down to a "brief communications breakdown" by Qantas. ]]> amandak 2009-11-09T12:24:24-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/3/52134/1133

Aussies are definitely not impervious to the charms of a cold can of Fosters; after all, they do have record-breaking pub crawls and boats made of beer cans. But if you're flying on a domestic Qantas flight Down Under, there are a few less beers going round these days.

Citing unruly behavior, mostly from drunken mine workers heading home after a couple of weeks working in the desert, Qantas has banned full strength beer and spirits on all flights within Western Australia. This follows existing bans on sales of spirits on intrastate flights in other parts of Australia.]]> amandak 2009-11-04T09:14:21-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/21/62530/286

Australia seems like a long way from just about everywhere, right? (Maybe not from New Zealand!). So if you want to get there in a bit of comfort, it would be great to splash out on a business class seat. Aussie airline Qantas wants to make this financially easier for us for a while, with a 40% off sale on business class seats from Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York down to Sydney or Brisbane.

Business class is certainly a nicer way to travel on those long, long-haul flights, although the funny thing is that Qantas claims to have invented business class back in 1979; if you prefer to believe Wikipedia, it was actually British Caledonian in 1978. ]]> amandak 2009-10-21T09:23:41-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/